


Speak until the dust settles in the place light refused to go

by fifthnorthumberland



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Scott McCall, Asexual Kira, Asexuality, Comfort, Comforting Derek, Fix-It, Grieving, Grieving Allison, Happy Ending, Pack Bonding, Pack Feels, Post-Episode: s03e23 Insatiable, cottage life, post 3b, post season 3B
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-24
Updated: 2014-03-24
Packaged: 2018-01-16 19:54:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1359805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fifthnorthumberland/pseuds/fifthnorthumberland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Allison's death the pack grieves together. To get away from Beacon Hills, they rent a cottage by a lake for two weeks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Speak until the dust settles in the place light refused to go

**Author's Note:**

> After Insatiable, I really needed to think happy thoughts, so I wrote down all of my post-Nogistune and post-Allison's death headcanons of how the pack would deal with their grief and hurt. I really wanted to give them time and space to do that. Also, ace Kira is my favourite headcanon right now. Also, fuck Jeff Davis forever. Thanks, bye. 
> 
> Title from "Cavalier" by James Vincent McMorrow.
> 
> I'm fifth-northumberland on tumblr :)

After Allison's death and the destruction of the Nogitsune, the pack grieves together. To get away from Beacon Hills, they rent a cottage by a lake for two weeks. It was Scott's idea, but Derek was the one to look into it, to find a place up North and rent it. He organized everyone's travels and they're all thankful for it.

For the first few nights, they sleep in a pile of inflatable mattresses in the living room. There’s a fireplace and it’s the middle of autumn, so they light a fire and whoever’s awake (most of the time, at least one of them can’t sleep) watches over it and over the others as they sleep.

They wake up late, make breakfast, feed the ducks on the lake ("Not with bread!" Kira yells at Isaac from the porch when she sees him walk over to the dock with a bag of bread crumbs), spend their days quietly and have camp fires when dusk falls. They're still getting used to not having to worry about nightfall.

Derek and Stiles take long walks. Stiles tells Scott they talk, that sometimes they don't, that it helps. One evening, when the pack is settled in front of the fireplace, Derek tells Scott about how Stiles laughed earlier, on their walk. It makes Scott smile something that’s closer to his usual beaming self than the small smiles that have been on display for a while.

Isaac is learning how to share his feelings with Scott, they talk about Allison a lot. They talk about how she understood them and how amazing that was. 

Kira bakes for them; she brought her cookbook and ingredients. She supports them, listens, offers to share space quietly with anyone who needs it. Her banana-chocolate chip muffins are delicious and she can hold your hand while you cry like no other. While she feels like she's found a home, a family, with the pack, she also accepts that they need time and space right now. She and Derek get along really well, as they're both surprised to find out. While she bakes, he sits at the table, reading a book or helping her by telling her which ingredient or step is next in her recipe. Jokingly, Kira calls them the pack's support team, once, over freshly baked brownies, and Derek goes pensive and smiles.

John and Chris come along, renting the cottage just beside theirs. They too need a break, need to get away from the drama and sorrow of home and work to cope with their loved ones. They let the kids have their own space because they understand that they've lived through this pretty much on their own and they need to be together right now. Chris appreciates John’s quiet support and they learn they have a lot in common that they didn't know about: they both like their coffee black and strong, they both hate board games, but love playing cards, and they’re both fiercely protective of what kids they have left.

Chris is often found in the woods by the lake with Isaac, showing him how to track animals. It's a small thing, but it makes them both feel like they're not alone in the world, so they cling to it. The sheriff and Stiles spend a lot of time together, playing board games (not chess) and cards, sometimes with Derek and Chris, who also spend some time together. (By the end of the vacation, they're back to planning protection strategies together, teaching each other and Scott all that they know, anything that could make their pack stronger.) Chris and John go fishing really early in the mornings. One time, Kira joins them and they get to know each other, tell her they look over her too now, that they'd like to meet her parents, get to know them and maybe work with them if they wanted to. Kira tells them she’s never had anything like this, anything this close to a family that wasn’t her actual mother and father. They both smile warmly and John squeezes her shoulder and tells her “We’re glad to have you, kiddo.”

Derek makes it his goal to spend time with each of them during their time together. He remembers losing his family and how that grief still hurt most days, but he also remembers that he's got this new family to take care of and who take care of him. He has something to give now, something he is good at, and it gets him through the day like nothing else has for the past ten years. Derek's been spending most of his time alone at the loft reading on werewolf lore, and trying to remember what his parents had taught him about his protective, caring wolf instinct. He isn't their alpha anymore, was never a good leader, but as Scott's second, he can take on responsibilities with more ease. So he decides to care for the pack. It's something that's new and hard, but he learns what every one of them needs; space, affection, a shoulder to lean on, cry on, a hand to hold, a running (or walking) buddy, a presence. He feels comfortable being these things for them and he's grateful to have a purpose now. 

  
At the beginning of the first week, the pack is just trying to begin healing. They bond and spend time alone too, relearning each other's boundaries and comfort zones as well as their own. It’s difficult, but sadness somehow lifts, if only momentarily. They talk and do together. It's good.

There's one thing they don't talk about much and it's what they'll do when they go back to Beacon Hills. There's a question of whether or not they’re willing to go on being the town's saviors. Part of them knows they can't back down now, that they started this and that if more is to come, they will be the ones to face it. Again. Forever.  

So they prepare. Chris and John are not only involved, but now they lead the pack. They listen to their alpha, they listen to the kids, always listen to them, because they've been handling this for long enough to know how to get out of most situations. Because they're the reason why they're in it in the first place. Chris misses Allison's input, tries to think like her, to let his heart guide him as well as his head and instinct, like she would. He tries to access her wisdom. 

  
Derek is their default werewolf counselor, works with them all the time now. They plan everything together.

They forget Peter. Before he left for the cottage, Derek forbid him from coming back to the loft, from calling him or contacting him through any magical means, from being in contact with anyone from the pack (especially Lydia) and from entering Hale territory ever again. When they get back, with Stiles, they magically banish him as well.

The Ethan is welcome to the pack. He doesn't relate to them much, yet, and keeps his distances mostly, but he attends their bi-weekly pack meetings and contributes actively. Stiles and him, once they've warmed to each other, get along pretty well. Ethan and Danny eventually start dating again. Ethan learns to be kinder, more generous. Danny is great with supernatural stuff and becomes a great asset to the pack. He refuses the bite, when it is casually offered. Danny quite likes being human.  
  
Lydia and her mother move to a Los Angeles (Stiles makes a joke about a banshee in the city of angels and Lydia laughs, only because he's an idiot and she'll miss him). She got accepted early into UCLA's math degree. She does marvelously. Her mother teaches in a high school. Lydia joins a coven recommended by Deaton. She learns more about her powers and how to control them. She feels powerful. It's her homage to Allison. She goes back to Beacon Hills to see her father every month and stays for long weekends to get together with the pack. They welcome her in as one of theirs, because she is.    
  
While she's in town, they have sleep-overs at Derek's new place. It’s another loft, with a bedroom and kitchen and a nice bathroom with a deep bath. There are big windows, lots of sunlight comes in in the afternoon, warms the floor and the linen cushions of the IKEA couch Derek bought. Derek's been doing better. He finds a job as a landscaper. He volunteers at the animal clinic for Deaton. He’s finding helping others to be soothing. He’s also learning to ask for help and to accept it when it’s offered. He thinks about taking in a stray from the clinic, a Great Dane named Helen.  
  
Scott and Kira go back to dating. They get to know each other outside of crisis situations and it's good. They share pizzas and kisses and cuddle in bed on weekends. Kira tells Scott about how she thinks she’s somewhere on the asexuality spectrum and Scott is really cool with that. He reads on asexuality and how to be a good ally and a good partner to an ace person. It comes easily to him as he’ll all tenderness and attentiveness.

They spend a lot of time together, but Kira also does her own thing, as does Scott. She gets to know all about being a kitsune with her mother. Her father is supportive and gentle when her mother forgets to be. 

Scott gets to spend more time with his mom. They talk about what happened a lot. They talk about his dad, too. Scott isn't really willing to give him a chance at being in his life now that he's grown up without him and that his dad has no idea what he went through. Scott doesn’t want to reveal himself and his friends to his dad.

 They meet up sometimes, but mostly they chat on the phone once every few weeks, like distanced friends might. It's strange, having someone in his life that's not immediately involved with everything he's been going through and is learning about, but it's also good. He tells his dad about school and Kira and the pack, though he doesn't call it that with his dad. His dad is doing good, seeing someone, he's very evasive about who, it makes Scott laugh. 

- 

They go back to high school when they come back from the trip. Going back without Allison is the saddest, strangest thing they have to do. They hold each other through the first day, with gazes, with hands in hands, and with hands on shoulders or around waists.

 At the end of the day, they meet up at Derek's loft. They hadn't planned to, it just happened. They all help prepare dinner and call their parents. They eat together and talk about school, work, and the supernatural.

Kira's been learning how to harness her power with her mom, Stiles has been working with Deaton to limit the Nogitsune's damage inside him and with Marin to get comfortable with himself again. He's figuring what's him and what's darkness and what's dangerous inside him. Scott is working with Deaton again and he stays after hours with Stiles and his boss, for Stiles. Derek, John and Chris have been working on a plan to work magic in order to banish supernatural creatures from Beacon Hills as much as possible.

During dinner, Stiles sits close beside Derek and Scott can tell their thighs are touching by the way Derek’s ears are blushing. At one point during the evening, once they’ve taken out dessert, coffee and tea, Stiles gets a sad look and Scott sees Derek reach for his hand on the table and give it a squeeze. Stiles smiles at Derek, a small, thankful smile.

 

Isaac is joking with Kira and Ethan while John, Chris and Melissa talk about planning a barbecue during the weekend. Scott surveys his pack and breathes in deeply, smelling a mixture of joy, satisfaction, and giddiness with the clinging scent of sadness. He knows they are still a bit broken, still hurt, but he’s also convinced they’ll be alright. Together, they’ll be alright.


End file.
